Do you agree?
Is how you coach more important than what you coach?
Does the same method work with all your players?
Have you found that as players develop
the methods you use need to change?
It took me several years before I realised
Not all players responded to my coaching in the same way
When doing individual 1-2-1 coaching. I gave them all the same “instructions” and advice. I used repetition over and over to ensure that they hit enough shuttles in the same routine 🙁
It should have worked, but it didn’t always (well, sometimes it did), and I didn’t understand why
I waited for the long-term improvements to appear. They didn’t always happen 🙁
I sat down and thought about the methods I used
It was a shortlist and made me feel uncomfortable as most methods were just ‘delivery without thought’
- I did practices that I liked as a player and that worked for me, that my old coach did with me
- I used the practices I was taught in my coach education courses
- I reproduced practices that I’d seen the ‘top’ coaches used
- I copied practices from Instagram and YouTube
Ok, some practices did work and some players did develop
However some players became frustrated, and others struggled
When things didn’t work, I did this …
- changed (well stopped) the practice as soon as I could so no one could tell it wasn’t working 🙁
- gave a new piece of advice, searching for that ‘magic instruction’ 🙁
- increased the repetitions, surely more of anything would be better! 🙁
- walked away from the court leaving them to practice, whilst I felt confused 🙁
Oh yes, I also blamed the player if they didn’t develop!
I was just delivering, not coaching
I’d been taught the components of Technique and Tactics in my Coach Education courses, but not how to evaluate the different ways of delivering information and certainly not how to analyse other coaches.
It became clear that whilst I had been working on building up all my Technical knowledge, I had done very little to develop my teaching/coaching skills.
I needed a plan, so I watched other coaches
How did other coaches coach
That meant I had to travel, make friends and open my eyes (and my mind).
Finding people willing to let me watch was hard, and getting them to talk about their practices was even harder!
I asked questions, I took notes and I listened. It was an exciting and confusing time.
They used all sorts of techniques. The more I watched and examined their methods, the more I started to see, but didn’t always understand.
There was so much to see. The more I looked, the more I could see subtle variations, a different way of delivering improvements to the players.
Successful coaches designed their practices at the specific skill level of the player
layering their delivery based on what the player could already do and what they needed next
How did they do it ?
Whilst working with my mentor, the truth of his success became apparent.
It wasn’t just what he knew that was important; it was how he developed it, and how he designed the practice.
It took me years to see and understand his subtle use of a variety of coaching/teaching methods.
It shocked me how many different coaching methods he used or could use to teach the same technique/tactic/skill
Oh, I did make a BIG mistake of asking to see his lesson plan!
The lesson plan was a 3 or 4-point plan in his book
Combined with years of experience, adaptable coach decisions and method selection
My advice to you
- Don’t expect every player to respond to your practices
- Have at least 3 different ways to teach every Technique/Tactic/Skill/Concept
- If it worked for another coach, or when you were a player, there is NO guarantee that it will work for them
- Find a mentor, watch them, ask them, challenge them
- Just doing more, faster and harder is not the preferred solution
- Develop your ability to review your coaching and its effectiveness.
Send me a question
I’m always grateful if you have read this far.
If there is anything that you have read that has helped or that you disagree with, then please send me an email.
I promise to read all your comments
It would be great to hear from you contact@badmintonandy.com
